He went to primary school in the Southern Hungarian village of Szank, and did his secondary school in Kiskunfélegyháza. In 1974, he got his degree in international relations at the Karl Marx University of Budapest. In 1974-75 and later in 1981-83 he was an administrator in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary. In 1975-82, he was cultural attaché of the Hungarian Embassy in Moscow for 7 years. In 1983-89 he worked for the foreign affairs department of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party as a deputy head of the department from 1986 onwards. In 1989-90 he led the Secretariat of the College of National and Ethnic Minorities for the Council of Ministers. In 1990-94, he was board member of the Illyés Foundation for Hungarians Living Abroad
Political career
In 1989, he headed the Secretariat of the National and ethnic minorities board of the Council of Ministers of Hungary In 1989-90, he was a deputy minister in the Government of Hungary. He was a member of the Hungarian National Assembly between 1990 and 2004 in the group of the Hungarian Socialist Party. From 1991 he was also a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in the Social Democratic political group. In 1994-98 he was political state secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister. After 1998 he was member, then head of the Hungarian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Western European Union. In 1998-2002, he worked as adviser on European integration matters in the Bács-Kiskun Regional Authority In 2002-04, he was member of the Bács-Kiskun Regional Assembly Since 2003, he has been a Member of the European Parliament in the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, and the head of the Hungarian Socialist Delegation. Since 2011, he has been the co-chair of the Intergroup of National Minorities, National Communities and Languages. He is the Vice-President of the European Parliamentary Association
Non-political activities and publications
In 2008, Csaba Tabajdi was the founder of the Hungarian Agricultural Academy, a yearly forum of representatives of Hungarian and international agriculture. So far the forum was held three times, and has arguably become one of the most important high-profile agricultural events in Hungary. Since 2008, he has been an honorary professor at the István Széchenyi University of Győr His scientific publications include: Az önazonosság labirintusa, Budapest, 1998 Esélyek és veszélyek, Budapest, 2002 Magyarságtudat és megélhetés, Budapest, 2002 Unió Európával és a magyar nemzettel, Budapest, 2003 Keletről nyugatra Európa közepén, Budapest, 2006 Pro minoritate Europae, European Parliament, Brussels, 2009
